Mamata high pitch: Rlys or three berths

The list could not be finalised tonight even after two rounds of meetings, largely because of hard bargaining by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. Despite a long session with Vajpayee in the morning, she is believed to be insisting that either the railways portfolio be given back to her or her party should have two minister of state berths besides her own place in the Union Cabinet.

An emissary of the Prime Minister met her late in the evening to persuade her to be more reasonable. The Government is believed to have refused to shift Nitish Kumar out of railways and has offered

Mamata a choice of four portfolios — rural development, civil aviation, coal and labour. Vajpayee has called another meeting at noon tomorrow after which the final Cabinet list will be sent to Rashtrapati Bhavan in time for the 6 p.m. swearing-in ceremony. There were indications this evening that the Government has dropped the idea of the major surgery it was planning to weed out deadwood which would have seen the exit of several non-perfomring ministers and the entry of many new faces. Now it appears that less than a dozen persons are likely to be inducted. These would include Jana Krishnamurthy, Shatrughan Sinha, Ramadoss of the PMK, Vaiko of the MDMK, Anant Geethe of Shiv Sena, P C Thomas of the Group of Independents and Mamata and another Trinamool MP, if she agrees.

Former Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel is believed to have refused to make the shift to the Centre, much to Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s dismay. However, last-minute efforts were on to persuade him to change his mind.

Apart from Thakur, others who are likely to be dropped include Maneka Gandhi and Munni Lal. Maneka left for Geneva tonight to present the Sasakawa environmental prize on the invitation of the UNEP.

Urban Development Minister Ananth Kumar is believed to have saved his place in the Cabinet after some hectic lobbying by his friends, including Venkaiah and Jaitley. He may now be drafted for party work only when the BJP goes in for a reshuffle of state unit chiefs when he will be sent to Karnataka. The Jaswant Singh-Yashwant Sinha swap is on the cards. Vajpayee is believed to have conveyed to Sinha that he will be the new Foreign Minister. Although there has been hectic lobbying to either drop Sinha completely or shunt him to the Planning Commission to send a signal to the BJP cadre unhappy with his last budget, it was felt that the Finance Minister should not be made the sole scapegoat for decisions which were after all, government decisions.

Also, with Jaswant Singh moving to the Finance Ministry, the Govt needs an English-speaking, articulate Foreign Minister who can deal with the US. Since the parameters of foreign policy are fairly well-defined, the Foreign Minister’s job is essentially seen as one which requires good communication skills for an international audience. Plan panel Deputy Chairman K C Pant who could have also fitted the bill is being tipped for a gubernatorial assignment.